Update

So I haven't posted on here for a while. But that doesn't mean I haven't been reading! Here's what I've finished since I last posted:

1. History of Love by Nicole Krauss
History of Love was a wonderful novel. It was heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time, discussing how we can react to our decisions and how disappointment and regret could take over our lives and when we finally attempt to make amends, we can let everything go.

2. Choke by Chuck Pahlaniuk
Pahlaniuk novels are my in-between, I need a reading break, kind of books. I know that sounds crazy and his writing has so many layers but his novels are easy for me to read. His writing style is just the kind of style that I can immerse myself in and the kind of style that makes me want to actually read on the el when I'm coming home from work. It's flowing but short and captivating. Not always the easiest to follow, but if you just roll with it, it's wonderful. Choke was not my favorite Pahlaniuk novel I've ever read, it had even more graphic content than some of his other novels, but it was definitely a nice break from the dense material I've been going through this summer.

3. The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
I knew this would take me a long time to get through, just by sheer size, but I wasn't expecting to take me as long as it did. The pulitzer-prize winner had a deeply-interesting story and was well-written but there was so much content that, by the end, I couldn't wait for the story to finally finish. There were also many places in the novel where the story could have finished, to a pretty good result, but the final ending was the right choice. It would have been much more climactic if the story hadn't been so bulky, but Chabon must have been writing a novel about how real life works, not a story.

Right now, I'm reading Luminarium by Alex Shakar. I'm not into it yet and I'm almost half way through the book. It was recommended to me by a friend and I hope it redeems itself by the end!

Super Sad True Love Story and Room

This post is going to be about two books I just read, the first being this late because I didn't want to write about the book and the second being this soon because I read the book so quickly! The first is Super Sad True Love Story (SSTLS for sanity's purposes) by Gary Shteyngart.

SSTLS was one of the most disappointing books I've read all summer. It's supposed to take place in the not so distant future (probably about 30-50 years) and the world that Shteyngart created is bizarre, attempting to be satirical of the way our world could head but it's so unbelievable that it just comes out ridiculous. His commentary on the world is appropriate, highlighting the way that sex and technology have taken over our lives. His idea of everyone having an "apparat" (which has umlauts on the a's but I don't know how to do that in here) is not far-fetched. We all have our cell phones, some of us with smart phones, and I can say that everyone I know in my generation is attached to their phone. The idea that we will all be dependent on our devices and interact more through our devices than through personal interaction is an issue that will be more and more apparent in the next few decades.

The other aspect of Shteyngart's commentary on our culture concerns the way that sex pervades our everyday lives. In SSTLS, teens watch porn together on a regular basis, girls wear "onionskin" jeans (which are see-through pants), and the names of the stores that sell clothes are named things that I'd rather not repeat. The idea that sex would be out in the open so intensely is completely un-fathomable for me. I realize that sex is already prevalent in our culture but that kind of intensity and publicity would receive so much backlash from conservative groups, that I would be shocked to see our world become so openly sexual. I realize that our world is so much more sexual than 100 years ago but there seems to be a breaking point.

Besides Shteyngart's preposterous world that he creates (and I didn't even get into the politics of his world), the story between the two main characters is empty with little to no redemption. The story follows dumpy, older Lenny and his falling in love with young, hip Eunice. They meet in Rome and she has no choice but to stay with him when she returns to the states. Their story seems as if it will end triumphantly with Eunice letting herself love Lenny against her "better judgement." However (spoiler alert), she leaves him for his much older, but younger through a process of de-aging, boss who can save her family. She ends up believing that family is the most important, which, to the reader, seems like a terrible idea. Shteyngart makes her family look like a mess of abuse and negligence. Her choice in the end left a bad taste in my mouth.

As for Room, the second book of this post, I would recommend this story to so many people. I loved the story, I loved the writing style, I loved the characters. I don't want to say too much about the story, since the way it unfolds is so beautifully slow. Not in a boring way, but in a bit by bit kind of way. The story is told from the point of view of a five year old and the innocence and perspective sheds so much light on the way the world works and the way people interact with each other. I just say that the book was fantastic and I would definitely recommend it. It was a fast, easy read and totally worth every minute.

A Visit From the Goon Squad

Aging is an issue that everyone deals with. I know that I'm still very young, but I'm starting to face the world of people I knew as babies entering high school and my friends getting married and having kids. I'm also at the point where I feel as if I need to balance my interests in the styles and lifestyles of whatever subcultures I might find myself entrenched in and the working world. When you're a student, you can get away with pretty much anything as far as style and lifestyle goes but when you have to go into the office and work a consistent schedule, things change.

Anyway, A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan tackles these issues along with the aftermath of being "cool" in high school. The story follows two different people in the music business, Bennie, a punk-turned-record-executive, and Sasha, his assistant with sticky fingers and a mysterious history. (doesn't that sound like the back cover of a novel?) The first two chapters are from Sasha and Bennie's perspectives, respectively, and the rest of the book shows their lives from the points of view of those around them. The story follows Bennie from high school to late middle age, and Sasha from her late teens to early middle age. Both Sasha and Bennie go through periods before their professional careers of reckless, youthful living, which ends up stalling the progression of their professional lives before they are able to flourish.

A Visit From the Goon Squad discusses aging in a candid way, which brings to light many of the dilemmas that every generation feels. The fear of loosing relevance, trying to keep relevance, and loosing it by trying too hard. Bennie is hit the hardest with this dichotomy, as his career as a record executive is a roller coaster through the story. He constantly has to fight to find the next big thing and, as he gets older, this gets harder. This is a reality for pretty much everyone, the fight between age and relevance. There is a line in the last chapter that sums up this feeling as Bennie says to his friend Scotty, "Time's a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?" (332).

The last chapter gives a peek into the near future, a time when my generation's children are just at my age now. Included in this, is the idea that the next generation will be "clean," meaning that they will not have piercings or tattoos after seeing all of our assorted body art age and deteriorate. Quite an interesting aspect seeing as I'm just at the point where I'm adding more and more... I definitely recommend this novel. It won the 2011 Pulitzer, which I feel is greatly deserved.

Freedom

After taking an extended hiatus from reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen to finish the Harry Potter series before the movie, I finally finished Franzen's latest novel early this week. I have to say that I loved The Corrections and the way that Franzen created a set of completely unlikable characters, with an ending that showed the tenderness that these seemingly cold-hearted, issue ridden people were capable of. Freedom creates the same kind of pity for characters who embody all that we are afraid of.

Freedom focuses on characters when they are at low points, professionally and relationally. This is true for each character except Patty. Patty's story spans a much longer period of her life than the rest of the characters, but her life over that long span, seems very empty and pitiful. Each of the characters embodies what I strongly fear, and what I believe much of my generation to fear: not really doing anything of importance with our lives. Patty and Walter both have ambition and potential but when they end up living deep in gentrification, their lives become mundane and inconsequential. This is one of my biggest fears, I'll admit that. And I believe that much of my generation feels the same way. We grew up in the "I believe I can fly" era, where we were taught the gospel of unlimited potential. While this may have opened up doors for a lot of people, it made more children, including me, prone to dissatisfaction. Franzen nailed this one on the head in the stories of each character.

The different parts of the book touch on different point in each characters' lives, and the different points tiptoe around the successful times. We don't hear from Patty when she is happy being a mom and a neighbor, we don't hear from Walter when he is first working for the conservancy, we don't hear from Richard when he is in his successful new band. Through this, Franzen shows a way of life that is ordinary and that anyone can identify with. We can all identify with dissatisfaction, stagnation, and failure, but not everyone can identify with a fulfilling, successful career, or loving family.

This is a short entry, mostly because I really just want to get it out there to prove that I haven't been living in a cultural wasteland, but also because I read Freedom over a long-ish period of time and I can't remember a lot of the themes that I wanted to touch upon. Anyway, I'll probably write a Harry Potter post (about the movie) after I see it for the third time (but the second didn't really count because I fell asleep during a lot of it). Currently, I'm reading A Visit From the Goon Squad, and I'm enjoying it so far.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I just finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I must say first off that Everything is Illuminated is one of my favorite books so I came into Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (called ELIC from here on out. Too bad it's not about that program at Wheaton... ) with an extremely open mind. Therefore, I really liked ELIC. Not anywhere near my top five at this point but I thoroughly enjoyed the read and I would definitely recommend it as a quick and easy but deep and heavy read. It's amazing how Foer fits all those incongruous features together in one book.

ELIC is definitely a "modern novel." (props to Brendan Fox for that comment) The use of what I would call mixed media, in this situation being pictures and different formatting, that would normally bother me. Honestly, I feel like most times, the use of these tactics often end up gimmicky. However, Foer manages to integrate these tactics into the story in a way that is completely gimmick-less. The main character, Oskar, keeps a book for himself of "Stuff That Happened to Me," which includes many photos that he mentions, photos that are then included in the pages of ELIC. The changes in formatting show the different narrators in the book, which allows the reader to differentiate their voices in a visual way along with the tone and speech patterns of each.

Some would probably say that the subject material of ELIC is too soon. That we haven't been able to separate ourselves from 9/11 enough to be able to appreciate literature about it or be able to take it seriously. But I believe that it makes us appreciate it and take it more seriously than we would be able to if we were separated from the event. Foer is speaking about such universal themes, including loss, family, and love, that need some sort of anchor. In ELIC, the anchor is disaster, 9/11 being the most prevalent, with the bombing of Dresden coming second, and including a short bit about the bomb at Hiroshima. Foer is able to bring those disasters to a different light when comparing them to 9/11. Much of his audience has no real connection or tangible feeling about the bombing of Dresden or Hiroshima but can identify, in some way, with 9/11. The subject makes all of the themes resonate better with a modern audience, and I have no feeling that it is too soon.

My last note about ELIC would be the subject of the difference between being loved and knowing that you are loved. Two quotes, one from the grandfather: "That's all anyone wants from anyone else, not love itself but the knowledge that love is there" (130) and another from the grandmother: "I don't know if I've ever loved your grandfather. But I've loved not being alone." (309) The difference between being loved and not being alone or just knowing that you're loved is truly a fine line. This is a much bigger subject than I have time or energy for, but ELIC brings it up. Foer doesn't elaborate a great deal but at least acknowledges that there is a difference. It's something that our generation doesn't talk about often and really just chooses to ignore. Mostly because we probably don't know the difference and usually err more on the side of not being alone/knowing you're loved than actually caring that you're loved. An interesting conversation that needs more discussion.

Hipster Christianity

I finished Hipster Christianity by Brett McCracken last night and I have had so many people already ask me how I liked it. I have to say that overall, I didn't. It's not that I didn't like what he had to say, he had a lot of good points to make, but two aspects of the book really distracted me from what he was saying.

First of all, his writing was stylistically strange. McCracken is typically a magazine writer, writing a great deal for Relevant, which translated a bit too much (or too little, depending on which way he could have taken the style) into the writing of the book. Before I get into that, though, I want to make the disclaimer that I don't think of myself as a writing expert. This is all coming from my experience reading the book and others might think that McCracken's writing is perfectly fine.The writing was generally conversational but there were moments where McCracken was attempting to be academic, especially in his chapter on the history of cool/hip. It's the magazine writer writing a book and feeling like he has to write more like a book writer. It's a line that doesn't really need to be crossed, but I'm sure anyone would feel that kind of pressure.

Adding to his magazine style, McCracken uses lists much too frequently throughout the book. Lists like: Churches I visited, Christian Hipster Leaders, beliefs of the emerging church, and the different types of hipster. These lists make up a majority of his content, which, in my opinion, distracts from what he's trying to say. It's sometimes a breather when, in a non-fiction type book, the author uses a list style, but when all the reader gets are breathers, coming up for air gets tiring. It just shows how uncomfortable McCracken is with writing book-type prose.

The second aspect of the book that was a distraction was the scattered nature of McCracken's intended subject. Hipster Christianity really is not an appropriate title for the book. McCracken probably should have just stuck to the tag line he used, "When Church and Cool Collide." What he really wants to discuss is the disparity between what Christianity says about being cool and what the church thinks it needs to do to attract members. This issue is a huge problem for the church today, and one of the scariest parts about the emerging church. But I'll get down off my soapbox. McCracken talks about this subject in length and I really feel that that's what he was trying to get at. It's just a whole lot harder to differentiate the subtleties between churches like that and hipster churches.

This difference is played out most in the churches he describes as "hipster churches." When I read that he described Mars Hill (Seattle) as a hipster church, I am sure I had a confused look on my face. I don't know any hipster (and I know a lot) who would be caught dead at Mars Hill! No self-respecting hipster would go to a mega-church with neon lights up at the front behind a pastor who still wears suit vests with t-shirts and Ed Hardy sweatshirts. A typical hipster church is much more subdued and doesn't try to attract people. For all you Wheaton people, Church of the Res is a perfect example of a hipster church. Liturgy, tradition, but with great arts and more liberal outreach. Res isn't having meetings to dress the pastor or try and figure out how they can be relevant.  This is a point that McCracken gets right on, but Christianity is relevant without having to try. Hipsters hate people who try too hard, even though they do themselves, lets be honest.

Anyway, McCracken does talk about the problems that hipster Christians encounter, problems like the prevalence of drinking, smoking, and drugs that occurs in Christian hipster circles, but that's not really the subject of his writing. McCracken wants to talk about cool and Christianity but the cool he chooses to use as a label (hipster) doesn't really apply to the subject he wants to discuss. His talk about hipsters is a bit edifying. For someone who can probably be called a hipster, it is good to hear someone write about how we aren't just a bunch of no-goodniks, but we are young people who appreciate fine things, even though others might not agree (especially with fashion). Hipsters do take stock in finer foods, art, and music. We like things because they are good, but they also happen to be hip. I will just go out on a limb and say that I'm glad I like listening to bands like the Dirty Projectors and eating at gourmet restaurants (avec and the publican two high recommendations) rather than listening to Katy Perry and eating at McDonalds all the time.

Hipster Christianity was definitely an interesting read but I'd find a summary rather than slugging through the whole thing. I'm now into Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I really like it so far, but a review will be coming as soon as I finish it!

Infinite Jest

So I finished Infinite Jest. Finally! Jeez. Y'all will see soon that I read about a book a week usually so devoting two whole months to DFW (David Foster Wallace for all you non-intelligentsia hipsters, who probably are better off not being intelligentsia hipsters...) took a whole heck of a lot of perseverance from me.

Anyway, it was amazing. I will confess that I'm fairly certain I only understood about 20% of all of it's nuances and the ending totally baffled me but it really was an amazing piece of work. I will have to read it a few more times before I would feel as if I understood any kind of majority of it but it's totally worth it as a read. DFW is an amazing writer and uses some unique, albeit occasionally somewhat unnecessary, writing techniques. A few as follows:
-The revelation of details about characters, especially in appearance, near the end of the characters' developments. For example, a character who appears throughout the novel is finally revealed to have white hair. Which may seem like a totally nominal trait, but was completely disorienting for me in the moment as it totally changed my minds-eye picture of the character.
-The seemingly backwards development of characters (which probably explains the first point). Throughout the book, there are smaller vignette type stores that are all connected. And there are three main lines, life at ETA, the Ennet House, and the goings on of the AFR. The first hundred pages of the novel don't make a ton of cohesive sense because all of these different seemingly disconnected stories happen and they only start to make real sense together about halfway through. Which is my number one reason why I want to read the book again.
-The EXCESSIVE use of footnotes. I'm sorry but I really get annoyed when authors use footnotes for EVERYTHING. That's why I haven't made it through but ten pages of Ulysses. Anyway, DFW uses footnotes for every little aside that he might use. Some footnotes are more than asides. There are entire story lines that happen through a single footnote that might be several pages long. And sometimes I would get lazy and not really read the entire long footnotes carefully which makes me feel like I must have missed something.

Overall, I would definitely suggest it to anyone who is willing to take the plunge. Worth it.

I am now reading Hipster Christianity by Brett McCracken which is interesting but his writing shows that it's his first book and he's trying to figure out if he wants to have a casual or academic voice. He's coming to speak at Wheaton this week so I might be able to go see him speak and get some light shed. After, I'm going to start Till We Have Faces again for a Sunday school class at church and hopefully finally get to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. As a reminder: I'm always ready for some suggestions for books, movies, and music.